Sunday, October 16, 2016

HOBSON’S CHOICE

Hobson’s
Choice, a comedy, by Harold Brighouse (1882-1958) is still
amusing more than a hundred years after its New York City premiere at the
Princess Theatre on November 2, 1915.Within a week, the production moved to the Comedy Theatre where the
production scored a total of 135 Broadway performances. Seven months later, the comedy was produced at
London’s Apollo Theatre opening on June 24, 1916. Hobson’s Choice moved to the Prince of Wales Theatre on November
20, 1916. The London production ran for more than 400 performances before
touring the cities of Great Britain. The production toured for years sometimes
returning to cities visited previously since it was still popular. Hobson’s Choice is Brighouse’s most
famous play.

Brighouse, a prolific British
playwright, originally belonged to Annie Horniman’s (1860-1937) Gaiety Theatre
group in Manchester, England. During Brighouse’s time with this group, he
established a relationship with Ben Iden Payne (1881-1976) who directed many of
Horniman’s productions. Payne, a native of Manchester, moved in 1913 to the
United States.When the London producers
would not mount Hobson’s Choice,
Payne produced it in New York for the Schubert Organization.

The title of this play
was a common term in Great Britain and was also known in the United
States.I have seen newspaper
advertisements with the banner HOBSON’S CHOICE as well as articles proclaiming
a politician was faced with a “Hobson’s Choice.” The term originated in the sixteenth
century. Tobias Hobson (1544-1631) was the owner of a livery stable in
Cambridge, England. He believed each horse needed an equal period of work and
rest and he would never allow a horse to leave the stable out of its turn. He
offered customers the choice of either taking the horse he had placed in the
stall nearest the door or taking nothing.This practice became known as “Hobson’s Choice” and it signified that
the choice was between either taking what was offered or receiving nothing. It
also became known as “no choice.”

It is fascinating to see
how Brighouse clearly incorporates “Hobson’s Choice” situations into his play
multiple times.Each “Hobson’s Choice”
moment leads to the next situation in the plot. Act One is set in the interior
of Hobson’s Boot Shop in Salford, Lancashire, England. The year is 1880.Henry Horatio Hobson, the shop’s owner, has
three daughters: Maggie who is age 30, Alice is twenty-three and Victoria is
twenty-one years. Henry spends a lot of his time at the “Moonraker’s”, a local
pub.Maggie manages the shop and she is
an excellent sales person. The daughters receive no payment for their labors.
Maggie delivers her first ultimatum to her father when he threatens to fire his
best boot maker, young Willie.

Act Two takes place in
the same location one month later.Maggie
comes to the shop, where she no longer works, to invite her sisters to her
wedding. She is to marry Willie that afternoon.

Act Three is set in a
cellar space that is a workroom, boot shop and living-room.Maggie and Willie are hosting their wedding
reception for her sisters and their boyfriends.Hobson arrives and he is distraught since he is charged with
drunken trespass resulting in damages for goods ruined in the neighbor’s
cellar.Once again Maggie manages the
situation to her benefit and Hobson is placed in a position to take her choice
in order to escape ruination.

Act Four is in Hobson’s
living-room that is attached to his shop.It is eight o’clock in the morning. It is one year later than Act
Three.Hobson is very sick as a result
of chronic alcoholism.He is living
alone since all the daughters are married. The issue becomes who will take care
of him. Once again Maggie provides Hobson with a final “Hobson’s Choice.”

While this plot outline
will not bring a smile to your lips, the lines of the play will. It is a fast
paced comedy that allows Maggie to be a spunky, take-charge female character.Some reviewers who saw the original
production believed it was a bow to the suffragettes.The London critics labelled the play “a
sparkling comedy.”It was a relief from
the dreary days and nights of World War One.

It was believed by the
reviewers that this play provided the right amount of laughs to make it an
event that was pure escapism. But it seems to me that this delightful comedy
written in a time of war does reflect on daily life during a war that makes nearly
everyone eventually faced with a “Hobson’s Choice.” The housewife who plans to
spend her meat rations on a day when the butcher only has pork that her family
will not eat. The young man who has not enlisted in the armed services and is
confronted with the stigma of being a coward. The soldier whose turn it is to
climb out of the trench and cross No Man’s Land. I would think that many
audience members who viewed this play during the war understood that point
despite the merriment presented on stage. Brighouse served the Royal Air Force
during World War One as a member of the intelligence staff of the Air Ministry
and undoubtedly saw his share of “Hobson’s Choice” situations.

Brighouse’s Hobson’s Choice continued to have a life
long after the conclusion of World War One. It has had several major revivals
as a play in the United Kingdom and the United States. This listing represents
several of the professional productions: a 1964 version was produced by the
National Theatre in London; 1977 Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, Connecticut;
2002 Off-Broadway production at Atlantic Theatre; a 2011 production at the
Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England and the 2016 production mounted by
Theatre Royal of Bath, England that toured the West Country in the spring prior
to opening in London at The Vaudeville Theatre on June 8th and closing
September 10,2016.

Hobson’s
Choice was adapted as a musical titled Walking Happy. The production opened on November 26, 1966 at the
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Broadway.It
ran for 161 performances.The play was
also developed into a popular ballet in 1989 titled Hobson’s Choice by David Bintley (1957-). This ballet toured to Hong Kong during
January, 2011.

The play was also made
into several films beginning in 1920. This first version was silent and it was
directed by Percy Nash and made in the UK by Master Films. A 1931 film directed
by Thomas Bently was made by British International Pictures and unfortunately
there is no available version today.The
1954 film Hobson’s Choice is still
the favorite starring Charles Laughton with John Mills and directed by David
Lean for London Film Productions.

In 1950 BBC-TV created a
version of Hobson’s Choice for "Sunday-Night
Theatre." Hobson’s Choice in 1967 was
remade by BBC-TV into a one season series. UK Granada Television in 1962 made a
ninety minute version of Hobson’s Choice.In 1983, Hobson’s
Choice was also made as a television film with the same title by CBS
Entertainment Productions for the United States audience.

Not to be forgotten is
the BBC radio play version of Hobson’s
Choice in 1942. It was still being aired into 1944. This delightful comedy
has had a long, productive and varied run during the past hundred years.

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Rhoda-Gale Pollack

About me

The opportunity to play a walk-on role when I was a first grader shaped my career choice. Being on stage was the dream that lead me to Carnegie-Mellon University where I earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre. During my undergraduate days, I began directing plays and working with costume design.

A one year costume position in the Department of Theatre at the University of California, Berkeley revealed a new idea of career heaven that worked perfectly for my other life roles as a mother and wife. While working at professional theatre jobs in the San Francisco Bay area, I taught theatre courses at Mills College as well as San Francisco State University where I had previously completed my Master of Arts in Theatre. Eventually I earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Theatre degree from Stanford University.